Shortly after its release in 1966, the film "Spur der Steine" "Trace of Stones" was yanked from circulation by the then-governing regime in the German Democratic Republic GDR, and its director, Frank Beyer, was prevented from making another film for eight years.
"Spur der Steine" will be the next offering in a retrospective film series of Mr. Beyer's works sponsored by the department of Germanic languages and literatures. The work will be screened on Tuesday, April 1. Like the other films in the series, it will be shown at 8 p.m. in Rm. 119 of William L. Harkness Hall. Admission is free, and the public is invited to attend.
Mr. Beyer's political films often incurred displeasure amongst officials of the former GDR, beginning with his 1963 work "Nackt unter Wolfen" "Naked Among Wolves", one of the first films made about Nazi concentration camps. That film, which was shown on March 25, and the others in the series have been made available to Yale by the Goethe Institute.
The remaining films in the series and the date they will be shown are: "Das Versteck" "The Hiding Place", Thursday, April 3; "Jakob der Lugner" "Jacob the Liar", Tuesday, April 8; "Der Aufenthalt" "The Turning Point", Thursday, April 10; "Der Verdacht" "Suspicion", Tuesday, April 15; and "Die Nikolaikirche" "Nicolai Church", Thursday, April 17.